Author Topic: Debit cards - pay in Lira or Sterling?  (Read 9428 times)

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Offline Bluwise

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Re: Debit cards - pay in Lira or Sterling?
« Reply #10 on: September 30, 2014, 22:00:01 PM »
Well, thank you so much Colwyn for taking the trouble to provide that info.  My purchase will wait until next visit as I have been looking at a rather expensive watch and I do not want to line my bank's pocket at all.  I won't worry about the odd restaurant bill now though.



Offline bewva

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Re: Debit cards - pay in Lira or Sterling?
« Reply #11 on: September 30, 2014, 22:51:52 PM »
I used the wrong visa (Barclaycard) to pay for our hotel booking in Belek £3040. I cost me £87 in fees.  :(

Offline Scunner

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Re: Debit cards - pay in Lira or Sterling?
« Reply #12 on: September 30, 2014, 23:46:39 PM »
I think I've totally missed even knowing about these fees. I pay with my First Direct visa (HSBC) and I never see any fees. The rate seems reasonable. Does the fee you mention (£87) appear on your statement as a fee in it's own right Paul? Or that's how much you worked out you lost within the conversion?

Offline Jacqui Harvey

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Re: Debit cards - pay in Lira or Sterling?
« Reply #13 on: October 01, 2014, 09:03:27 AM »
Also, ask the business do they make a charge to use a credit/debit card.  We were making a large purchase and asked a business in Fethiye could we use a card, we were told that the business had to pay a lot for credit cards and so it would charge us an extra 9% to use any card.  Needless to say we did not use a card.
Some businesses in the U.K. also make a charge if you use a credit card i.e. T.Cook who charge £16.00. 

Offline Colwyn

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Re: Debit cards - pay in Lira or Sterling?
« Reply #14 on: October 01, 2014, 09:33:35 AM »
I think I've totally missed even knowing about these fees.
Banks do not need to tell you in your monthly statement that they have charged an exchange load. I think they do need to show the usage fee as a separate item. It is fairly easy to check. Over the weekend I had to withdraw 1000TL from ATM with a Visa-serviced debit card (my apart otel doesn't take cards for the reason JH said and I needed a cash top up). My bank paid the Turkish bank on Monday at a rate of £1 = 3.66TL. So I looked to the Visa Europe website and it said on Monday they were exchanging at a rate of 3.66. Perfect. Had I used NatWest it would have been exchanging at £1 = 3.59. If I  didn't check this I might have thought "Pretty good rate" and might not realize I had paid a 2% exchange load to NatWest. First Direct is worse: it charges 2.99% load and on top of this it looks like you also pay 2.99% (minimum fee £3) for the pleasure of withdrawing from ATM. Can this be true?


You can check your statement here for Visa:  http://www.visaeurope.com/en/cardholders/exchange_rates.aspx
There is also a Mastercard site.

Offline Colwyn

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Re: Debit cards - pay in Lira or Sterling?
« Reply #15 on: October 01, 2014, 15:35:08 PM »
Sorry Bluwise, I have misinformed you. If you draw from ATMs on NatWest you are charged 2% (minimum £2) for using the machine PLUS a loading of 2.75%. Drawing £100's worth of cash would cost you £104.75. I had forgotten that standard cards hit you with a double whammy.

Offline Bluwise

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Re: Debit cards - pay in Lira or Sterling?
« Reply #16 on: October 01, 2014, 15:38:48 PM »
Thanks again.  :)

Offline bewva

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Re: Debit cards - pay in Lira or Sterling?
« Reply #17 on: October 01, 2014, 21:57:18 PM »
Keith,
Off my statement.....
Sherwood Brezess Res, Antalya
10489.41 TURKISH LIRA TURKEY
Transaction Fee £ 87.89

Offline bewva

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Re: Debit cards - pay in Lira or Sterling?
« Reply #18 on: October 01, 2014, 22:05:57 PM »
The above I got at 3.46tl / £ The rate was about 3.5 on the street.
The booking was made with Booking.com and it said you pay locally in local currency on arrival. They take your card no to confirm the booking.
When we got there the payment had already been sorted but I couldn't remember the card I used. Had I paid with my Nationwide Visa I would have got the bank rate probably around 3.55TL and no fee....
Lesson learnt. :(

Offline littlereddevil

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Re: Debit cards - pay in Lira or Sterling?
« Reply #19 on: October 02, 2014, 19:08:41 PM »
You should always pay in the local currency wherever you are, I always used to have big charges with Barclaycard  but have now got a Halifax Clarity card which has no charges for overseas spending




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